This is the first China-made FAD, which may be cause for some consternation amongst people. The Y-split has a massive 'CHINA' stamped on it, without a neck cinch.

Overall, the build is not too bad. The strain reliefs at least seem capable this time around, so people will be pleased with that, but it's not the kind of rock solid engineering people will see from the likes of Shure and Westone. I doubt FAD will ever roll out anything as utilitarian.

There's that 'new car' rubber smell to the cables, which is kind of annoying, but I think so people might get a kick out of that (it'll make them slightly high, at least, with those polyaromatic hydrocarbons doing a number on the CNS).

I'm not a fan of the outward angling of the cables. It looks nice from an aesthetic point-of-view, but on the practical side, it's not really great when it comes to ergonomics. I foresee using these earphones almost purely straight-down as opposed to over-the-ear.

When the cables are worn straight-down, there is quite a bit of cable noise.

Sound-wise, they're not a disappointment in that they sound quite nice. Good bass impact, good clarity, and smooth highs --- practically zero sibilance (especially compared to the A1/SS).

However, by sealing up the BAM, the Heaven IV seems to have lost a little bit of the soundstage magic that FAD has long had with their products. Nevertheless, it still sounds excellent, and by pricing these more realistically as well, FAD is probably going to sell a lot of these.

My initial impressions of the sound (and take this with a little bit of crystalline powder) hint to me that it's a Heaven S without the brassy resonance. I distinctively noticed less of the 'offensive' treble that some people hated about the Heaven A/SS. Details are quite present, which I found to be very pleasant. At the same time, it's a fairly forgiving sound as well. Perhaps it's that it's now a fully closed system, and it's easier to hear details.

However, without that extra resonant sound and without the openness of the vented system, that distinct FAD flavor (i.e. coloration) is a bit diminished. The sound is now distinctively vanilla, rather than the usual polarizing sound that FAD is used to pulling off.

Being in the financial reach of the majority of Head-fi members at less than $200, the Heaven IV might actually be the first FAD to gain mainstream acceptance.

As you can tell, I'm not exactly raving about the Heaven IV because I think it doesn't quite have that uniqueness that FAD is known for, but I do think it's a very respectable product, and is by far the most practical earphone FAD has churned out. To me, it feels like the perfect entry level FAD Heaven --- it'll hint at the Final Audio coloration, but will mostly stay a middle of the road IEM. As a company, Final certainly has been working on gaining mainstream acceptance, which, depending on your viewpoint, may or may not be a good thing. I just hope they can continue to churn out ostentatious, ludicrously-priced Piano Forte X-CCs and simultaneously make more practical products like the Heaven IV.

To be honest, I didn't find my impressions to be much different from this. But I found them bright and cold, not as much as the SS however.

Well, I don't know about that, if you found the FI-BA-SS warm, then they are warm.

Heaven S, not FI-BA-SS. The Heaven S has more of a brassy "sizzle" to it, and I would agree that the Heaven IV is rather like the Heaven S without that resonance. I'm not so sure I'd call the Heaven IV "warm," but I'm definitely not hearing the Heaven IV as cold or shrill either. The Heaven S and FI-BA-SS are definitely more aggressive in the highs.

In my experience, the mid coloration usually tells most of the story when it comes to describing sound with respect to "temperature".

No FAD earphone has cold mids. Every single one has warmth in its mids. The ones with the 'coldest' mids, relatively speaking, are the SC/A1, and Adagio V.

Distinguishing between dark and bright is usually dependent on balance between the extremes --- at least that's how I describe things.

Jeremypsp, please also do describe when you say 'bright and cold', what is it with respect to? Your W4? Well, yes, it's certainly 'brighter' and less 'warm' compared to a Westone 4, but that doesn't mean that it's bright and cold. However, I just completely don't understand the characterization of 'shrill'. Shrill is almost always used to describe highs --- piercing highs. I never associate this word with any part of the midrange.

Heaven S, not FI-BA-SS. The Heaven S has more of a brassy "sizzle" to it, and I would agree that the Heaven IV is rather like the Heaven S without that resonance. I'm not so sure I'd call the Heaven IV "warm," but I'm definitely not hearing the Heaven IV as cold or shrill either. The Heaven S and FI-BA-SS are definitely more aggressive in the highs.

I have not heard the Heaven S, only the B and the FI-BA-SS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomscy2000

In my experience, the mid coloration usually tells most of the story when it comes to describing sound with respect to "temperature".

No FAD earphone has cold mids. Every single one has warmth in its mids. The ones with the 'coldest' mids, relatively speaking, are the SC/A1, and Adagio V.

Distinguishing between dark and bright is usually dependent on balance between the extremes --- at least that's how I describe things.

Jeremypsp, please also do describe when you say 'bright and cold', what is it with respect to? Your W4? Well, yes, it's certainly 'brighter' and less 'warm' compared to a Westone 4, but that doesn't mean that it's bright and cold. However, I just completely don't understand the characterization of 'shrill'. Shrill is almost always used to describe highs --- piercing highs. I never associate this word with any part of the midrange.

Okay... maybe I used the wrong word. And it is certainly "brighter" and less "warm" than stuff like the W4, BA200, SM3v2 etc.

However, I just completely don't understand the characterization of 'shrill'. Shrill is almost always used to describe highs --- piercing highs. I never associate this word with any part of the midrange.

Yeah, I usually consider the loose equivalent of shrill highs for the midrange to be "thin" or "tinny." The K550 characterizes this perfectly for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeremypsp

Okay... maybe I used the wrong word. And it is certainly "brighter" and less "warm" than stuff like the W4, BA200, SM3v2 etc.

To be fair, the W4 and SM3 are generally considered darker / warmer IEMs, so saying the Heaven IV isn't as dark or warm puts it anywhere from cold and shrill to baseline "normal" to even slightly dark and warm.

Okay... maybe I used the wrong word. And it is certainly "brighter" and less "warm" than stuff like the W4, BA200, SM3v2 etc.

FYI, Heaven S == FI-BA-SB, Heaven A == FI-BA-A1, and Heaven C == FI-BA-SC, while FI-BA-A1 == FI-BA-SC; there is no 'Heaven' denotation for the FI-BA-SS

There you go; next time, please say that it's 'brighter' and 'less warm' than the W4/BA200/SM3. Purely saying that it's 'bright and cold' is extremely confusing to people. We went through an entire page trying to figure out why you heard things so differently from everyone else. I still don't get what you mean by 'shrill', though.

FYI, Heaven S == FI-BA-SB, Heaven A == FI-BA-A1, and Heaven C == FI-BA-SC, while FI-BA-A1 == FI-BA-SC; there is no 'Heaven' denotation for the FI-BA-SS

There you go; next time, please say that it's 'brighter' and 'less warm' than the W4/BA200/SM3. Purely saying that it's 'bright and cold' is extremely confusing to people. We went through an entire page trying to figure out why you heard things so differently from everyone else. I still don't get what you mean by 'shrill', though.

Yeah, I am aware of the model names, which I stated I have only heard the Heaven B, FI-BA-SS and the few of the adagio line.

Well, perhaps, because I thought the temperature was fairly similar to that of the B2 or the Sony XBAs. (may be different in your case). Perhaps what you said is true, that Final Audio's sound signature is quite different from the mainstream, allowing it to be harder to classify sometimes. I said it was shrill because I felt the highs were "slightly" harsh, I don't know if you feel it, but we probably have different treble sensitivity.